The errors in the use of article in business letter writing in English : a case study of the business management students of Vavuniya Campus, Sri Lanka

This paper investigates the errors in the use of articles in business letter writing in English. It is a case study of the Business Management Students of Vavuniya Campus, University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka. The study classifies the errors and analyzes the implications in the linguistic and discourse structures of the genre in relation to the mental schema acquired in the past. The written texts were collected from a systematic examination. The qualitative analysis dominates the methodology with some relevant quantitative data. It contributes to the explanation of the errors of Sri Lankan student

'Mysticism' in the Gospel of John : an inquiry into the background of John in Jewish mysticism.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX185894 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Proposing Thematic Diversity Reference Model for Essay Writing and Assessment

The tertiary level learners show inadequacy in thematic diversity in their essay writing in English, especially in non-English speaking countries. The learners’ effectiveness in developing the topic is unsatisfactory, affecting their creativity and performance and, finally, the evaluation of their essays. Though there are guidelines and textbooks for developing writing skills, inadequate training with a proper practice model reflects weak performance at the university level. Writers can develop a topic in diverse ways from multidisciplinary, spatial, and temporal perspectives. Therefore, a simplified guiding Model is proposed for facilitation. This paper describes the Model and application instruction in the pre-writing, writing and post-writing processes. It can be an efficient tool for students in their written course assignments, essay questions in examinations, and creative writing. In addition, it can be an effective tool for teachers to teach and assess expressive language skills like essay writing. A visually designed Thematic Diversity Reference Model for textual production and assessment developed in this research addresses this thematic non-diversity. The topic is approached at four levels: 1) Content, 2) Strategic, 3) Tactic, to 4) Logical Approaches. It stimulates feelings, ideas and activities in abstract and concrete ways and from different perspectives, as described in the schema theory of J. Piaget (1957) and the Social Learning Theory of Albert Bandura (1999), thus diversifying and enhancing the theme or topic and the sub-themes consequently. The researchers analysed an essay written in English to explain its usefulness in writing and assessment. The analysis was dominantly qualitative. The application reveals a significant failure in all four approaches. It identifies the absence of multidisciplinary nature, critical, creative, temporal, spatial, and contextual expansion, statistical, ideological, experiential, and referential information, causal and logical relationships, cohesion, and coherence. Thus, the Model assists the writer and the reader, advocating pedagogical solutions in developing writing strategies for better performance and assessment. It applies to interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary writings, social sciences, and humanities. KEYWORDS: Essay writing, Thematic diversity, Creativity; Evaluation; Reference mode

Fabrication of three-dimensional substrates for Li microbatteries on Si

Lithographic techniques for patterning planar substrates to achieve microbattery materials compatible three-dimensional (3D) Ni substrates for sequential deposition of active battery materials are described. A single spin negative photoresist is used to achieve 100 mu m pattern heights. After patterning, Ni is electroplated on the substrates from a low stress Ni sulphamate bath to a maximum of 100 mu m. The sidewall angle achieved yields a thinner Ni feature at the surface level than at the base which is a key parameter to facilitate subsequent active battery materials deposition by vacuum deposition techniques. An aspect ratio of 1.5:1 has been achieved and the surface area is increased by comparison with planar electrodes

Modeling High-temperature Creep Behavior of EUROFER 97 Steel

poster abstractThe objective of the study is to develop a thermal creep analysis model for EUROFER 97 reduced activation ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steel used in nuclear applications. The simulation was carried out using ANSYS for comparison with the experimental data. Creep is a time-dependent visco-elastoplastic phenomenon that is heavily dependent on temperature. In this model, the Norton Law was used to predict the creep rupture. The sample under study is a cylindrical specimen subjected to axial tensile pressure. Quarter axisymmetric model was used for ease of modeling and calculation. Structural solid model with fine mesh and linear isotropic properties was defined. Non-linear implicit creep model was defined using the Norton Law which considers secondary (steady-state) creep. Time and temperature parameters were considered in this simulation (650˚C for 80,000 seconds) since creep is heavily dependent on time and temperature effects when the diffusivity, vacancy and dislocation mobility are activated. Upon solving, contour plots of creep strain and von Mises stress distribution before and after the creep effect were obtained. The ANSYS simulation data matched the experimental creep stress and strain values. The ANSYS creep simulation capabilities thus modeled, can be extended to other specimen and materials of interest

Detailed ECG analysis in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a predictor of multitude of complications

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a systemic disease with life-threatening complications and morbidity. The 12 lead ECG, an easily available investigation, when studied in detail can give a lot of information and predict various microvascular and macrovascular complications apart from coronary artery disease.Methods: A random cross sectional study involving 100 patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus, in the age group of 18-80 years were included in study after applying various inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were subjected to ECG, 2D echocardiography and laboratory tests. Data were collected and analysed.Results: Arrythmia was not detected in any patient. A resting tachycardia (HR >100) in 30 patients correlated with Prolonged QTc (>440 miliseconds) (p=0.04). QRS amplitude was reduced in 26 patients. Prolonged QTc also correlated with presence of diabetic complications, retinopathy of NPDR type and nephropathy (p=0.004). Hence about 30% of the study group did show signs of early diabetic cardiac autonomic neuropathy and cardiomyopathy.Conclusions: The statistically significant utility of electrocardiogram in predicting various complications of diabetes apart from coronary artery disease

Utility of platelet count and platelet indices as a prognostic indicator in pregnancy induced hypertension

Background: Changes in the hemostatic system are observed in both normal and hypertensive pregnant patients. Although the exact pathophysiology of pregnancy induced hypertension is not completely understood, numerous pathophysiological mechanisms, alone or in combination, have been suggested to be responsible for the diverse subsets of PIH.Methods: This was a prospective case control study conducted on 100 pregnant females (50 PIH and 50 normotensive) at Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, from October 2020 to May 2021. platelet count and platelet indices (mean platelet volume and ratio of platelet count to mean platelet volume) at 32 weeks and at time of delivery were checked and Outcomes were compared.Results: For predicting PIH, platelet count showed sensitivity of 82% and specificity of 54%, MPV sensitivity of 54% and specificity of 82%, PC/MPV sensitivity of 82% and specificity of 62%. For predicting pre-eclampsia without severe symptoms, platelet count showed sensitivity of 89.47% and specificity of 47.62%, mean platelet volume sensitivity of 47.37% and specificity of 76.19%, platelet count/mean platelet volume sensitivity of 31.58% and specificity of 100%. We also found that in predicting pre-eclampsia with severe symptoms platelet count showed a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 26.32%, whereas, mean platelet volume showed equal sensitivity and specificity of 55.56%, platelet count/mean platelet volume with sensitivity of 44.44% and specificity of 84.21%.Conclusions: We found that platelet count and platelet count/mean platelet volume decreases while mean platelet volume increases with severity of pregnancy induced hypertension

Application of Esscher Transformed Laplace Distribution in Microarray Gene Expression Data

Microarrays allow the study of the expression profile of hundreds to thousands of genes simultaneously. These expressions could be from treated samples and the healthy controls. The Esscher transformed Laplace distribution is used to fit microarray expression data as compared to Normal and Laplace distributions. The Maximum Likelihood Estimation procedure is used to estimate the parameters of the distribution. R codes are developed to implement the estimation procedure. A simulation study is carried out to test the performance of the algorithm. AIC and BIC criterion are used to compare the distributions. It is shown that the fit of the Esscher transformed Laplace distribution is better as compared to Normal and standard Laplace distributions

A study on pregnancy outcome following previous spontaneous abortion: a hospital-based prospective observational comparative study

Background: Majority of spontaneous pregnancy loss occur in early gestation. Early pregnancy loss causes great physical and psychological distress to couples and creates apprehension in achieving future reproductive success. Previous abortions have a definite impact on the successful outcome of future pregnancies.  Hence for such pregnancies careful antenatal care is mandatory. Careful surveillances required in pregnancies preceded by spontaneous abortions, for early detection of possible complications. Methods: This was a prospective observational comparative study conducted on 184 antenatal women (92 patients with previous spontaneous abortion, no full-term delivery, selected as cases while 92 patients with previous full term normal vaginal delivery with no previous abortion selected as control) attending antenatal OPD at Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, from October 2020 to May 2022. All women received regular antenatal care and were followed up till delivery for maternal and foetal outcome. Results: For predicting pregnancy outcome following previous spontaneous abortion showed statistically significant in term of obesity, 56.52% patients were obese in cases while in controls only 48.91%. Duration of marriage, in cases is 2.22 years, where as in controls were 4.24 years with significant result. Interpregnancy interval (months) in cases was 10.58±4.19 whereas in controls it was 32.53±14.41 with significant result. Antenatal complications in term of GDM, hypothyroidism, IUGR more in cases than controls. Conclusions: We found that prior spontaneous abortion miscarriage is definitely a risk factor for the next pregnancy, making present pregnancy a high-risk pregnancy